Guide |
Building and operating a private cloud with VMware Cloud Foundation allows organizations to use an integrated infrastructure that combines compute, storage, networking, operations, and automation to create and manage a private cloud. In this demonstration, we will explore cloud foundations key benefits, including its ability to streamline the deployment and operations of a modern private cloud.


Deploying a modern private Cloud

To deploy VCF you use the VCF installer. Here we have logged in where we can see that the required VCF binaries have been downloaded.

To deploy VCF we use the Deployment Wizard where we select VMware Cloud Foundation.
  1. Click the Deployment Wizard
  2. Click VMware Cloud Foundation
We begin the deployment by indicating if we will deploy a new VCF Fleet or if we will deploy a new VCF instance to an existing VCF Fleet. When deploying a new fleet, a new instance of VCF Operations and VCF Automation will be deployed. When adding a new VCF instance, the new management domain will be registered with an existing VCF Operations and VCF Automation instance.

In this example we will deploy a new VCF Fleet.
  1. Click the scroll bar
  2. Click CONTINUE
Next, we identify any existing components that will be added to the new VCF Fleet. Here we can choose to add an existing VCF Operations instance as well as an existing vCenter Server instance.

We will use an existing vCenter server instance to host the VCF Management domain, so we check the VMware vCenter.
  1. Click VMware vCenter
  2. Click NEXT
We then assign a name to the VCF instance, a name for the management domain, and choose the deployment model.
  1. Click NEXT
We also provide the details for the new VCF Operations instance that will be deployed as part of this fleet along with the corresponding Fleet Management Appliance and VCF Operations collector appliance.
  1. Click the scroll bar
  2. Click NEXT
In this example, we will add an existing VCF Automation instance to the fleet after the deployment.
  1. Click NEXT
The installer then prompts for the vCenter server credentials.
  1. Click NEXT
and asks to confirm the name and certificate thumbprint.
  1. Click CONFIRM
Next, we provide the details for the NSX instance that will be deployed as part of the VCF instance.
  1. Click NEXT
Finally, we are prompted to provide the password for the SDDC manager appliance.
  1. Click NEXT
After gathering the required information we are able to review the settings for the new domain.
  1. Click the scroll bar
  2. Click NEXT
After which the VCF Installer validates the configuration.

Upon successful validation, we simply click "DEPLOY" to deploy the new VCF Fleet.
  1. Click DEPLOY
It takes approximately 2 hours to deploy the VCF fleet.

During the deployment the VCF installer imports the vCenter server instance, deploys VCF Operations, deploys VMware NSX, and configurs the VCF Management domain.
  1. Click the expand icon
  2. Click the scroll bar
  3. Click "X" to close the tasks pane
With the deployment complete we connect to VCF Operations to manage our new VCF Fleet.
  1. Click OPEN VCF OPERATIONS
  2. Click LOG IN
To recap, deploying Cloud Foundation is easily done using the VCF Installer. Simply deploy the VCF installer, download the binaries and provide the necessary inputs. The installer fully automates the deployment of the modern private cloud.

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